March 2, 2016 - GUATEMALA - Guatemalan authorities issued a
warning Wednesday as the country's Fuego volcano, located near the
capital, spewed ash into the air.

A spokesman for the country's disaster response agency, David de Leon, said the 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) high volcano had entered a new eruptive phase with increasing explosive activity, prompting an orange alert indicating danger.

The volcano sent ash plumes billowing more than 2,000 meters (6,561.68 feet) above the crater; they then spread as far as 40 kilometers to the west, southwest and north, the spokesman said.

He added that rural communities surrounding the volcano, as well as the urban municipalities of San Pedro Yepocapa and Santa Lucia Cotzumalguapa de Escuintla, reported fine ash particles falling from the sky.

De Leon said his agency was in touch with local authorities and that so far no evacuations had been deemed necessary.

The Fuego volcano is located some 45 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the capital Guatemala City.

Guatemala's Vulcanology Institute has instructed civil protection authorities to step up their vigilance and recommended precautionary measures for air traffic.

The Fuego volcano has long been active. A powerful eruption in February 2015 prompted an alert and the closure of Guatemala City's airport. - Yahoo.

March 2, 2016 - MISSOURI, UNITED STATES - Unexplained loud booms have been affecting residents around Grundy County for weeks, and the cause has yet to be determined.

"It's weird because it's unlike most booming noises you hear," said Glen
Briggs, the emergency management director of Grundy County. "If you
hear a car crash or something like that, you can pretty well tell which
direction it came from. When I heard it, I couldn't identity which
direction it came from. It resembled thunder, but there were no
thunderstorms in the area."

Trenton residents began reporting their experiences of these booms after
they heard it for the first time Feb. 14. "I instantly made a post on
our emergency management Facebook page and asked if anyone else heard
it," Briggs said. "We had close to 100 people comment saying
they heard it. Several people said they felt it. They described a loud
thud, rattling, some saw flashes of light and smoke."

Trenton police arrived in a matter of minutes to the area where
residents were affected, but didn't find anything out of the ordinary.
"No one lost power, so we quickly ruled out a transformer explosion,"
Briggs said. "That particular one was heard as far as 5 to 7 miles away.
Whatever it was, it was very loud, but we we're never able to identify
the source."

Briggs has been working on the mystery ever since, creating a
spreadsheet of the sounds' potential origin, which falls into one of two
categories. "There's a handful of evidence that says this has to be
man-made. And there's a handful of evidence that says no, it's got to be
natural," Briggs said. "But we don't have enough evidence either way to
say is this an earthquake, or is this someone blowing something up?"

Briggs said those in the geological sciences and engineering
department at Missouri University of Science and Technology have
supplied their expertise to help officials find the source. They've
investigated whether the noises could be tied to groundwater, fracking
fluid or the shifting of tectonic plates.

"One interesting geological instance that has occurred in our area
before was when some sort of gas was coming out of the ground for no
apparent reason," Briggs said. "They may be correlated, but no one has
been able to confirm that a boom has happened in an area where we had
reports of gas coming out of the ground."
The timing of these noises also varies considerably. Whether it's a
weekday, weekend, 4 p.m. or 1 a.m., the noises have been occurring at
random. "There is no pattern to them," Briggs said. "There does seem to
be a slight tendency for them to be occurring from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., but
using that for an edge on this mystery is very slight."

Briggs said residents in surrounding counties, including Mercer and
Sullivan, also have reportedly heard the booms. Anyone who thinks they
may have heard the booms is asked to post their experience to the
"Grundy County Emergency Management" Facebook page. Briggs asks
residents to post as much description as possible, including time, exact
location and any other related details.

"Even if you think it's something very trivial, like smelling
something after one of the booms," Briggs said, "let us know what it
smelled like. If it's the smell of a firecracker going off or something
like that, it can help us point to it being man-made. If it's an
unfamiliar smell that's foreign, maybe it's something natural." - News-Press Now.

Our correspondent Andi who's there on one of our Volcano Special tours, reported:

"Sinabung
increases its activity after the big pyroclastic flow on February 26, which
burned the remaining houses left from the previous damaged village
(Simacem)...- this and the occurrence of highly hybrid tremors means
there is deformation of the lava dome that grows continuously and
increases the intensity of rock falls followed by pyroclastic flows."

Suwanose-jima (Ryukyu Islands): After a period of relative calm since last October, a new phase of strombolian activity occurred this morning at the volcano.

WATCH: Time-lapse video of Suwanose-jima.

Telica (Nicaragua):
INETER and SINAPRED confirmed that a small amount of lava was erupted
from a small new fissure into the crater of Telica during the night, as
bright glow had suggested. A warning was issued not to approach the
crater because of the risk of sudden explosions.

Shortly before dawn,
weak ash emissions occurred from the crater, which since then has
remained relatively calm, producing only a small intermittent steam/gas
plume mixed with some light ash content.

Ash emission from Telica.

Telica's crater with bright glow from lava (?) about 40 minutes after the first signs of incandescence.

On March 1, a
new eruption seems to be underway at the volcano. Bright glow has
become visible from the crater since around midnight (local time).

This probably indicates that a new eruptive fissure is opening up there, possibly erupting lava onto the crater floor.

Fuego (Guatemala):
The activity of the volcano continued to increase into its 4th paroxysm
(called "eruption" by local press) of 2016. Lava effusion rate
increased gradually and continued to feed the lava flow on the eastern
side into the Las Lajas ravine, where it reached approx 600 m length
yesterday and started to produce small pyroclastic flows (by collapse of
parts of the flow on the steep slope).

Ash plume from Fuego.

Pulsating lava fountains at
the summit vents generated an steam and ash plume that rose 2-3 km above
the volcano, reaching altitudes of 17-20,000 ft(5.2 - 6 km). The plume
drifted southwest for up to 20 km before dissipating.

Constant moderate to strong rumblings can be heard and felt in nearby areas.

Soputan (North-Sulawesi, Indonesia): The volcano has remained calm since its last eruption on February 6-7,
but continues to show significant signs of unrest. Its alert level is
being maintained at 3 on the Indonesian scale of 1-4.

Seismic activity at Soputan over the past year
(Red lines=explosion signals, GUGURAN=avalanche signals)

Visual activity during the past weeks consisted in degassing,
producing a plume that rose 25-75 meters, and rock avalanches from the
lava dome that indicate that magma supply continues into the dome at
slow rate.

An exclusion zone of 4 km radius from the summit is in place and
increased to 6.5 km towards the western sector. River beds draining from
the volcano in particular should be avoided due to the elevated risk of
lahars (mud flows) during rainfall.

Erta Ale (Danakil depression, Ethiopia):
The level of the active lava lake in the volcano's southern pit crater
of the summit caldera has sunk a bit again after its last overflow in
mid January, but remains highly agitated. Our expedition leader Enku who
was there with a small group from February 12-15 reported:

The lava lake of Erta Ale seen in late December 2015 (image: Enku Mulugheta)

"Erta
Ale is going down again to 5- 7 Meters from the rim of the caldera, but
the activity is getting very wild at this time and it was very hard to
walk on the the recently crusted flow.

The last flow went in every
direction from the crater and covered the whole rim with fresh crust of
gaseous basaltic pahoehoe lava."

Momotombo (Nicaragua):
Two moderately strong explosions occurred during the past 24 hours at
the volcano, covering the upper slopes of the cone with fresh lava bombs
and producing ash plumes that rose approx 2 km.

Tungurahua (Ecuador):
Ash emissions have continued after the powerful vent-clearing explosion
on Sunday (27 Feb). During brief periods when cloud cover lifted, a
steam-and ash column was seen rising 1,500 meters above the crater and
heading west.

Ash/steam emission from Tungurahua

Ash fall has been occurring in the sector of Mocha.
Ground vibrations from the volcano could be felt in Manzano, Pillate,
Patilahua and the Tungurahua Volcano Observatory.

March 2, 2016 - MEDITERRANEAN - Parched Californians think they have it bad. But people in the eastern's
Mediterranean Levant region — which includes Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria, Turkey, Israel and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip areas
governed by the Palestinian Authority — have been enduring a drought that began back in 1998.

Now, a new study by NASA, Columbia University and University of Arizona researchers confirms that thedrought most likely is the worst that the Mediterranean Levant has suffered in the past nine centuries.

The scientists studied tree rings and historical documents in an effort
to reconstruct the region's water history. They found that the most
recent drought is not only longer but about 50 percent drier than the
worst period in the past 500 years, and 10 to 20 percent drier than any
drought since the 1100s A.D.

The results were accepted for publication in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.

The researchers also studied how drought in the region related to water
conditions elsewhere. In most cases, for example, they found that
droughts in the Levant corresponded to similarly dry conditions in
Western Europe. Historically, that may have been a factor in
international conflicts.

"Both for modern society and certainly ancient civilizations, it means
that if one region was suffering the consequences of the drought, those
conditions are likely to exist throughout the Mediterranean basin,"
Kevin Anchukaitis, a co-author of the study and a climate scientist at
the University of Arizona in Tucson, said in a press release.

"It's not necessarily possible to rely on finding better climate
conditions in one region than another, so you have the potential for
large-scale disruption of food systems as well as potential conflict
over water resources."

Even if the drought eventually eases, a 2013 study by German scientists concluded that the region's growing population and its water use may lead to chronic shortages.

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian water officials recently met in London to discuss improving their cooperation in coping with the region's water situation. As this 2015 New York Times article
details, Israel for years has invested in desalination plants and
recycling waste water, and more than 50 percent of Israeli water needs
are now filled by those sources. - Discovery News.

March 2, 2016 - INDONESIA - A 7.8 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Indonesia,
according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The country has issued a
tsunami warning, the National Meteorolgical Agency reported.

The shallow quake, which hit southwest of the island of Sumatra on Wednesday, had a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles).

The epicenter was located 808 kilometers (502 miles) southwest of Padang.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. However, shallower earthquakes are more likely to cause damage.

USGS shakemap intensity.

The USGS originally categorized the quake as a magnitude 8.2, and later an 8.1, before lowering it to a 7.8.

Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning for West Sumatra, North Sumatra,
and Aceh, according to the National Meteorological Agency.

A tsunami watch has also been issued for parts of Western Australia, according to the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre.
The tremors could be felt in parts of Singapore, a witness told AFP, noting that the ground shook for about 15 seconds.

"I could feel my bed moving and I saw the wind chimes swaying even
though my windows were shut. I suspected it's tremor from a quake in a
neighboring country because this was what happened some years back
during the Sumatra earthquake," W. Ong, who lives in Sengkang, told the
agency.

WATCH: CCTV Visuals - Powerful quake strikes off Indonesia.

In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck 160 kilometers (99 miles) off
the western coast of northern Sumatra, resulting in a tsunami. A total
of 230,000 people were killed across a dozen countries, including
Thailand.

Indonesia straddles the so-called 'Pacific Ring of Fire,' a highly
seismically active zone where neighboring tectonic plates violently
clash, resulting in a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes. - RT.

Tectonic Summary

The March 2, 2016 M 7.8 earthquake, 800 km off the west coast of
southern Sumatra, Indonesia, occurred as a result of strike-slip
faulting within the oceanic lithosphere of the Indo-Australia plate.
This event is located 600 km to the southwest of the major subduction
zone that defines the plate boundary between the India/Australia and
Sunda plates offshore Sumatra. At this location, the India/Australia
plates move north-northeast relative to the Sunda plate at a velocity of
about 55 mm/yr. The deformation zone defining the defuse boundary
between the India and Australia plates is nearby the March 2 earthquake.

Large strike-slip earthquakes are not unprecedented in the diffuse
boundary region separating the India and Australia plates, southwest of
the Sumatra subduction zone. In 2012, two events of M 8.6 and M 8.2 on
the same day (04/12/2012) ruptured a series of oceanic strike-slip
structures 650-850 km to the north of the March 2, 2016 event. On June
18, 2000, a M 7.9 earthquake ruptured an oceanic strike-slip structure
about 1000 km southeast of the March 2, 2016 earthquake. The focal
mechanisms of the all of these earthquakes are consistent in implying
that each event could have occurred as the result of left-lateral slip
on an approximately north striking fault or right-lateral slip on an
approximately west striking fault. The two different orientations of
strike-slip faulting are both possible under the same tectonic stress
field; perpendicular strike-slip faults that are both compatible with
the same stress field are called "conjugate faults". In 2012, in-depth
studies of those major events showed that faults of both orientations
were involved in their rupture processes, breaking a network of
conjugate faults over an area of ~ 200x200 km in size in the Wharton
Basin. Because of the remote locations of these oceanic earthquakes,
such events rarely cause shaking-related fatalities (the 2012 M 8.6
event caused two). Similarly, strike-slip earthquakes do not typically
generate tsunamis.

Seismotectonics of the Sumatra Region

USGS plate tectonics.

The plate boundary southwest of Sumatra is part of a long tectonic
collision zone that extends over 8000 km from Papua in the east to the
Himalayan front in the west. The Sumatra-Andaman portion of the
collision zone forms a subduction zone megathrust plate boundary, the
Sunda-Java trench, which accommodates convergence between the
Indo-Australia and Sunda plates. This convergence is responsible for the
intense seismicity and volcanism in Sumatra. The Sumatra Fault, a major
transform structure that bisects Sumatra, accommodates the
northwest-increasing lateral component of relative plate motion.

Relative plate motion between the Indo-Australia and Sunda plates is
rapid, decreasing from roughly 63 mm/year near the southern tip of
Sumatra (Australia relative to Sunda) to 44 mm/year north of Andaman
Islands (India relative to Sunda) and rotating counterclockwise to the
northwest, so that relative motion near Jakarta is nearly trench-normal
but becomes nearly trench-parallel near Myanmar. As a result of the
rotation in relative motion along the strike of the arc and the
interaction of multiple tectonic plates, several interrelated tectonic
elements compose the Sumatra-Andaman plate boundary. Most strain
accumulation and release occurs along the Sunda megathrust of the main
subduction zone, where lithosphere of the subducting Indo-Australia
plate is in contact with the overlying Sunda plate down to a depth of 60
km. Strain release associated with deformation within the subducting
slab is evidenced by deeper earthquakes that extend to depths of less
than 300 km on Sumatra and 150 km or less along the Andaman Islands. The
increasingly oblique convergence between these two plates moving
northwest along the arc is accommodated by crustal seismicity along a
series of transform and normal faults. East of the Andaman Islands,
back- arc spreading in the Andaman Sea produces a zone of distributed
normal and strike-slip faulting. Similar to the Sumatran Fault, the
Sagaing Fault near Myanmar also accommodates the strike-slip component
of oblique plate motion. Plate-boundary related deformation is also not
restricted to the subduction zone and overriding plate: the subducting
Indo-Australian plate actually comprises two somewhat independent plates
(India and Australia), with small amounts of motion relative to one
another, that are joined along a broad, actively-deforming region
producing seismicity up to several hundred kilometers west of the
trench. This deformation is exemplified by the recent April 2012
earthquake sequence, which includes the April 11 M 8.6 and M 8.2
strike-slip events and their subsequent aftershocks.

Paleoseismic studies using coral reefs as a proxy for relative land
level changes associated with earthquake displacement suggest that the
Sunda arc has repeatedly ruptured during relatively large events in the
past, with records extending as far back as the 10th century. In
northern Simeulue Island, the southern terminus of the 2004 megathrust
earthquake rupture area, a cluster of megathrust earthquakes occurred
over a 56 year period between A.D. 1390 and 1455, resulting in uplift
substantially greater than that caused by the 2004 event. Studies that
look at large sheeted deposits of sand on land interpreted as the
transport of debris from a tsunami wave also indicate that this region
has experienced significant tsunamis in the past centuries, albeit
infrequently.

Prior to 2004, the most recent megathrust
earthquakes along the Sumatran-Andaman plate boundary were in 1797 (M
8.7-8.9), 1833 (M 8.9-9.1) and 1861 (M8.5). Since 2004, much of the
Sunda megathrust between the northern Andaman Islands and Enggano
Island, a distance of more than 2,000 km, has ruptured in a series of
large subduction zone earthquakes - most rupturing the plate boundary
south of Banda Aceh. The great M 9.1 earthquake of December 26, 2004,
which produced a devastating tsunami, ruptured much of the boundary
between Myanmar and Simeulue Island offshore Banda Aceh. Immediately to
the south of the great 2004 earthquake, the M 8.6 Nias Island earthquake
of March 28, 2005 ruptured a 400-km section between Simeulue and the
Batu Islands. Farther south in the Mentawai islands, two earthquakes on
September 12, 2007 of M 8.5 and M 7.9 occurred in the southern portion
of the estimated 1797 and 1833 ruptures zone, which extends from
approximately Enggano Island to the northern portion of Siberut Island.
Smaller earthquakes have also been locally important: a M 7.6 rupture
within the subducting plate caused considerable damage in Padang in
2009, and a M 7.8 rupture on October 25, 2010 occurred on the shallow
portion of the megathrust to the west of the Mentawai Islands, and
caused a substantial tsunami on the west coast of those islands.

In addition to the current seismic hazards along this portion of the
Sunda arc, this region is also recognized as having one of the highest
volcanic hazards in the world. One of the most dramatic eruptions in
human history was the Krakatau eruption on August 26-27, 1883, a volcano
just to the southeast of the island of Sumatra, which resulted in over
35, 000 casualties.

Subduction and seismicity along the plate
boundary adjacent to Java is fundamentally different from that of the
Sumatran-Andaman section. Relative motion along the Java arc is
trench-normal (approximately 65-70 mm/year) and does not exhibit the
same strain partitioning and back-arc strike- slip faulting that are
observed along the Sumatra margin. Neither has the Java subduction zone
hosted similar large magnitude megathrust events to those of its
neighbor, at least in documented history. Although this region is not as
seismically active as the Sumatra region, the Java arc has hosted low
to intermediate-magnitude extensional earthquakes and deep-focus
(300-700 km) events and exhibits a similar if not higher volcanic
hazard. This arc has also hosted two large, shallow tsunami earthquakes
in the recent past which resulted in high tsunami run-ups along the
southern Java coast. - USGS.

Heavy rain in south eastern Brazil has caused a deadly landslide in São Sebastião, São Paulo State, and widespread flooding in the streets of Rio de Janeiro city, where some areas saw over 90mm of rain in 4 hours.

São Paulo
The heavy rain began to fall on 28 February 2016. Two people died after they were buried in a landslide in the Boicucanga neighbourhood of São Sebastião on 29 February. The landslide destroyed several homes, leaving at least 11 people homeless. A total of 27 people were evacuated.

Agência Brasil say that a total of 7 people have died in landslides in the state since December.

The heavy rain also caused surface flooding in Baixada Santista on the coast of São Paulo state. Local civil defence personnel were called in to help carry out some evacuations.

Rio de Janeiro
Agência Brasil are also reporting that torrential rain on 29 February caused widespread surface flooding in many parts of Rio de Janeiro, paralysing traffic and disrupting flights at Santos Dumont Airport.

The worst affected areas include the favela of Rocinha, which recorded 96 mm of rain in just 4 hours. The news agency says that Alto da Boa Vista saw 93.8 mm of rain, Jardim Botânico 77.8 mm and Urca 74.8 mm.

Warning Sirens
No deaths or injuries have been reported. The Civil Defence for Rio de Janeiro municipality sounded emergency sirens in the districts of Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia. The sirens are used once rainfall levels reach above 50 mm or more in one hour, and warn residents of potential floods and landslides, and to prepare to evacuate their homes. Civil defence say that rainfall levels reached 62.4 mm in one hour in affected areas.

UK Floods – 2013 to 2014 Winter Floods Caused £1.3 Billion Damage

An official report by the Environment Agency in the UK reveals that
the winter floods of 2013 to 2014 caused damage in England and Wales
costing around £1.3 billion.

Residential properties, making up 25%
of total damages, suffered the greatest proportion of flood damages. As
many as 10,465 properties suffered flood damage, with estimated
incurred costs of £320 million. Furthermore, an estimated £50 million
was spent on temporary accommodation for 7,000 households forced from
their homes by the floods. As many as 4,897 businesses also suffered,
incurring costs of around £270 million.

But it wasn’t just
buildings and property that suffered damage. According to the report,
the 2013 to 2014 winter floods caused damage to 5,400 motor vehicles,
including boats and caravans, with estimated costs of £37 million.

Damage
to roads cost £180 million and railway damage around £110 million.
Costs to to air transport, which included flooding and disruption to
flights at Gatwick airport, are estimated at £3.2 million. Damage to local authority and government infrastructure costs around £58 million.

2013 to 2014 Winter FloodsBetween
December 2013 and March 2014, the UK witnessed heavy and prolonged
rainfall, including the wettest January on record in parts of the
country and around twice the average monthly rainfall in other
locations.

The East Coast was also affected by the largest coastal surge since 1953. These events resulted in significant coastal damage and prolonged fluvial and groundwater flooding, particularly in some southern counties
and south western areas of England. During these 4 months many
properties, crucial transport infrastructure and farmland were flooded.

About the Report
The report is the result of research commissioned by the Environment
Agency’s Evidence Directorate and funded by the joint Flood and Coastal
Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Programme.
The
project aimed to identify the range of impacts of the floods, and to
calculate the resulting financial and economic damages but also
calculate damages that were avoided. Over 600 organisations were
contacted for information and over 500 data sources were reviewed.

The
project used methodologies developed in response to the floods of
summer 2007 flood, and also the rapid flood cost calculator devised by
the Environment Agency in 2012.

However, the characteristics and
impacts of the 2013 to 2014 floods differed in many ways from those of
the 2007 floods, prompting an in-depth review. In particular, a better
assessment was needed of the impacts resulting from coastal surge and
extreme waves that were a feature of the winter floods for many coastal
areas. The long duration floods in areas such as the Somerset Levels was
also a key feature of the winter 2013 to 2014 floods. Rivers in the area were later dredged as a result of the damage caused by the floods.

See the full report, The costs and impacts of the winter 2013 to 2014 floods, here.

A cold front caused heavy rain on Sunday 28 February in northern and western parts of Haiti, causing flooding in Grand’Anse Department, and also in Cap-Haitien and Limonade in Department of Nord.

Haiti Civil Protection say that at least 1 person has been killed in the floods. The victim was thought to have been swept away while attempting to cross a swollen river in the small village of Dame Marie, Anse-d’Hainault, Grand’Anse Department. A person who was with the victim at the time of the incident is still missing. Three fishermen from Anse-d’Hainault are also missing.

Haiti Civil Protection say that flooding has damaged at least 2,000 houses in Limonade, and a further 8,000 in Cap-Haitien, both in Nord Department. The worst hit areas are those along the Mapou River, especially Haut-Du-Cap.

‎A landslide in Port-de-Paix has totally destroyed one house and left 3 others damaged.

Haiti Civil Protection say that damage assessments are still being carried out.

Early February Floods
Nord Department suffered severe flooding just a few weeks ago when heavy rain affected the northern part of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola between 09 and 11 February 2016.

Port-de-Paix and Cap-Haïtien were affected by the severe weather and more than 200 houses have been damaged, forcing families to leave their home. Several neighbourhoods of Cap-Haïtien, including Carénage, Cité Lescot, Sainte Philomène and Charrier, suffered flooding on the 11 February.

Drought, Floods and Food Security
Earlier this month, the World Food Programme said that Haiti is in its third year of drought exacerbated by the global El Nino weather phenomenon in 2015.

“3.6 million Haitians are currently facing food insecurity, among them 1.5 million are severely food insecure. This is a doubling of the severe food insecurity in the last 6 months.

“The 2015 spring harvest fell below average with losses of up to 70 percent in some areas. This is a severe blow to food security in Haiti, where agriculture employs half of the working population and is generally a very important source of income among poor households”.

The recent floods in northern areas have done little to help the food situation. In fact, the heavy rain may have made the situation worse.

Commenting on the floods of early February, Haiti with Love, a charity working in Haiti, said:

“One of the things we don’t think about when we see the flooding happening is a point very important to the people experiencing it. Their primary diet is rice and beans –
not the canned kind. With wet charcoal, rain and flooding everywhere they can’t cook and therefore cannot eat. We are talking about some folks who don’t eat every day normally so this becomes very serious very fast.

“… another serious point to make about these heavy, damaging rains and all the flooding is what it will have done to the future food supply. Any trees or plants budding or blooming will have lost this crop of fruit or citrus; any gardens planted will have been washed away so there is going to be major hunger until these things can grow and produce again. As you may have been reading the drought before these rains already were causing starvation.”

Parts of East and West Java, including Jakarta, Indonesia,
experienced heavy rain that began on 25 February 2016, causing floods
in the two provinces that have left one person dead and affected over
35,000.
Jakarta recorded 119 mm of rain in 24 ours between 25 and
26 February. The city of Surabaya in West Java saw 74 mm of rain during
the same period.

Further heavy rain has fallen since then. Curug,
in Tangerang Regency, Banten province, recorded 79.1 mm of rain in 24
hours to 01 March, 2016. Bogor, a city south of Jakarta, in West Java,
saw 74.1 mm during the same period.

In Jakarta, flooding was
reported in as many as 46 different locations across the city between 27
and 28 February. Indonesia disaster management officials (Badan
Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana – BNPB) say that the heavy rain caused
the Cengkareng river to overflow in the Cengkareng district of the city.
BNPB reported on 28 February that a young child had died in the ensuing
floods. Over 250 people were evacuated from the area.

The heavy
rain also affected the neighbouring cities of Bogor, Depok and Bekasi in
West Java. The Cimanceuri river in Tangerang, Banten province,
overflowed forcing hundreds to evacuate, according to local media.

In East Java province, areas around Sampung were also badly affected on 26 February, 2016.
BNPB
say that flooding was reported in 13 villages, affecting A total of
11,468 households or 34,225 inhabitants. Much of the flooding was a
result of the overflowing Kemuning river.

Bolivia – Heavy Rainfall in Beni and Santa Cruz, Landslide in La Paz

Intense rain affected northern areas of Bolivia on Saturday 27
February 2016. A landslide in an area of La Paz has damaged several
houses and forced almost 30 people from their homes.

In Beni Department, 151.4 mm of rain recorded in 24 hours at Rurrenabaque. During the same period, high levels were also recorded in San Borja (57.6 mm), San Ignacio de Moxos (72 mm) and Trinidad (61.9 mm), all in Beni Department, while 58 mm was recorded in Viru-Viru, in the bordering Santa Cruz Department.

Area of the February 2011 La Paz landslide. Photo: Senorhorst Jahnsen Under CC BY 2.0

Torrential rain affected the city once again, this time on Saturday 27 February, resulting in a landslide in Jupapina-Mallasa, a less urbanised district in the southern area of La Paz Municipality.

The city is well known to be prone to major hydro-geological issues, given its peculiar geomorphological conformation (a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River) and its rapid urbanisation on or near to steep slopes.

The eagle swooped down on the bear and her cub as they were eating a dead whale in Kodiak, Alaska

March 2, 2016 - ALASKA - This is the dramatic moment a bear took out an American bald eagle in
one fell swoop after getting too close to her cub and its food.

The bird had approached the bear and her youngster as they had been eating a dead whale in Kodiak, Alaska.

Other eagles had been swooping down on the pair but managed to keep a respectable distance from the mammals.
However, one bird got far too close for the adult bear's liking and she swatted it down with her huge paw.

And even though the blow was not enough to kill the large bird,
it was left stricken on the ground and unable to fly due to a broken
back.

The confrontation was captured on camera by 63-year-old wildlife photographer Fred O'Hearn.

He explained: 'The sow bear was so protective of her food, a dead whale,
she wouldn't leave especially as there was a stream only a few hundred
yards up the hill where she could get water.

'She got a bit tired of the eagles and started chasing them away, even her cub got into the act.

One eagle got far to close to the bear's cub and its food angering the large animal into action

The bear then attacks the eagle and ends up swatting it to the ground with its large paws

Once on the ground, the bear made sure the eagle was not going to threaten her cub any further

The cub even wandered over to make sure the eagle who was eyeing up his dinner was no longer a threat

The eagle was left on the floor with a broken back and unable to fly while the two bears enjoyed a nap

'Two of the eagles got tangled with one another just as the sow was in
hot pursuit, which meant the end of the road for one eagle.

'In the next few photos she is attacking the eagle and the cub gets quite interested in the affair.

'Incredibly the eagle still managed to reach up and grab her in the face
with a talon which actually quite discouraged the sow from attacking
any more.

'You can see the her drooling which is a sign of stress in a bear. The
next few photos are her checking on the cub and then back to napping.'

And even though the eagle appeared to survive the attack, Mr O'Hearn believes it wouldn't have lived for much longer.
He added: 'She never actually killed the eagle, I think the talon in the face ended the attack.

'The eagle was broken up and other than flopping around
occasionally, just lay there for many hours. I believe its back was
broken.

'I would have liked to put the eagle out of his suffering but there was
no way I was going down there with a sow with her cub so heated up.' - Daily Mail.

March 2, 2016 - NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - Dozens of residents on Long Island called 911 to report hearing
mysterious loud booms Tuesday evening, Suffolk County police say.

Suffolk police said they received numerous calls from residents in
Lindenhurst, Copiague, Babylon and West Islip just after 6 p.m. Police
have no knowledge of explosions in the area but are investigating.

The U.S. Coast Guard also said it is looking into the reports.

Resident Samantha Collins of Lindenhurst told NBC 4 New York she was sitting on the couch watching TV when "the whole house started shaking."

"We went outside, and all my neighbors were like, 'Did you hear that, did you hear that?'" she said.

Residents in the tri-state reported feeling similar booms in late
January, when reports of rumbles and house-shaking flooded in from the
southern Jersey Shore to Long Island and the Connecticut coast.

Naval officials said later they had been testing fighter jets over the
Atlantic Ocean and that some of the maneuvers could have caused sonic
booms.

Peter Mangione, who was working at a Lindenhurst volunteer
firehouse, said the boom Tuesday night sounded similar to the one a
month ago.

"I just heard boom, like a loud boom, like a plane broke the sound
barrier, and I got up and walked out and didn't hear any sirens," he
said.

"Whatever it was, it literally shook the town and it was the same thing
we heard a month ago," said Lindenhurst resident Don Werle. - NBC New York.

March 2, 2016 - QUEBEC, CANADA - The following video was posted to YouTube on February 7, 2016 by Contributor Trinysky. In the video, strange sounds can be heard, seemingly coming out of the night sky. According to Trinysky, the location is in 'Assomption Quebec.